I'm back

Happy New Year to everyone, what a year 2012 turned out to be.  I only started blogging in September 2011 and made it to March 2012 and then it all stopped.  I do have a good reason, honest! 

Would you like to see my excuse?

There she is, little Lollipop.  We were taken a little by surprise but now can't imagine life without her!  I suffer from pretty bad morning sickness, although it was as usual, worse at night.  For the first few months I was asleep most nights by 8 o'clock, so my blogging time was spent in the land of nod!  

With a new arrival imminent, we had to try and finish the house so it was off to storage with furniture and boxes, plastering finished and walls painted.  The outside of the house was rendered and the floors inside sanded.  

The gable end

 

 

 

The scaffolding around the back of the house

Before

After!

Skirting boards and door frames were cut, painted and fitted (mostly by me and bump) and the girls finally had a finished (more or less) bedroom to sleep in.  I finally put door handles on the kitchen cabinets and took the protective film off the doors (the kitchen had been in for about 20 months so it was almost like having a new kitchen again)  Our bedroom is now painted too although it was done after baby arrived and while we were in hospital.  Phew!

The garden has been totally neglected and if anything is in a worse state than it was before.  I still managed a little bit of crafting but not nearly enough!  The girls have grown and are turning into little characters, so alike, but so individual.  They think their little sister is great and have become very helpful, getting nappies for me and rocking her moses basket - long may it continue!

So....

this year I am planning to 

* finish all the painting in the house - mostly windows

*get the house in order - back to using flylady to organise the chaos

*craft, craft, craft, hopefully making some nice nicknacks for the house

*tackle the garden, some flowers would be nice and some home grown vegetables

*spend vast quantities of time with the kids, playing, entertaining them and generally having fun

* go on holiday, somewhere, anywhere!

 

Let's see how we do, I hope you'll join me, look in often and leave nice comments to encourage and cajole me.

Christmas Day walk on the beach

I'm still here!

Hello blogland, I've been missing in action for nearly a month.  My camera has been broken and I've been taking snaps on my phone, but Mr H has the cable at work so I can't show those pics either and I have some beauties!

I have also been crafting my socks off.  My girlies now have curtains in their bedroom (yay) and I may even get some up soon in my own room.  February's craft project has taken longer than planned and been slightly highjacked with a 'this one I need to finish' project so I am plodding along slowly but hope to be posting regularly soon.

I had a lovely message from Lyn asking how March's scavenger hunt was going, truth is I wrote down the list on a piece of paper at the start of the month and promptly lost it.  March seems to have been a terribly disorganised month ;-)  I'll pop over to Postcards from the PP and write out another list.  I still have 4 days to come up with the goods!

TTFN and wish me luck

February Photo Scavenger Hunt

Here we are with February's photos.  I took most of them today, nothing like leaving it to the last minute!  Thanks to my glamorous assistant.

5 - speaks for itself!

Black and White - and still a few answers to go

Crowded - our windowsill with all of R's birthday cards

 Cupid -face has been disguised to protect the innocent - I'm not really married to a stick man

 

 

Empty - the last of the Christmas chocolates, roll on Easter!

Food - left over mashed potato, mixed with a little flour and deep fried - sooooo tasty!

Heritage - my great great granny's cookbook (check out some of the recipes on Voices from the ancestors )

In the Sky - there are little specks in the sky which are some local racing pigeons (trust me), we pass them on the way to the nursery.

Leap Year - My engagement ring, we got engaged 4 years ago today, (12 years really!)

 Love - I love tulips and these ones are gorgeous, thanks mum

Music - I have been doing a little bit of work and used these Cd's

Train - KP's favourite, in her words, toot toot!

Phew, made it for the month and with 42 minutes to spare!

I will be more organised next month, honest, now do I have time for the monthly makes tonight too....

It's been a while

I've just realised it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post, I've been having camera problems and also seem to have been running around like a headless chicken!  However, my house is slightly tidier and the spare room less full of boxes, craft projects have moved on and I have even been dabbling in a little work, so I have not been idle!

Just the one picture today, R celebrated her 4th birthday last week - 4! how did that happen?  After the party with her friends last month and her Tinkerbell cake she decided that A little mermaid cake would be satisfactory!  She has quite a way with words,  the night before her birthday she told me she was just practising being 4 that night and that I had to get her a present and a cake.  Kids learn fast!

I used ready coloured icing to make the decorations.  It was quite easy to use although I found the blue crumbled a bit.  It kept in an airtight container for the month between the party and birthday so could be used for several cakes  I cheated with an Ariel toy and added gummy sweety sea creatures.

I now have a month off before Mr H's birthday, I have an idea for that, so watch this space!

Any keen chefs out there may be interested in my other blog, (just started) where I am taking recipies from my great great grans cook book (I think she wrote it out in the early 1940's).  The blog is called Voices from the ancestors and I plan to add documents from my family's history including diarys and anything else I come across in my family tree research.

Hopefully normal servicce shall resume soon, I need to get my photo scavenger hunt done tomorrow and make an effort to finish my monthly make.  I can see another busy week in store.

Thanks for popping by and have a good week.